I recently got an email in response to a school board issue that had in all caps the words shame on you. It got me thinking about the powerful ways we shame and shun one another and how these ideas were part of religious practice for centuries.
For me the church is a place where shame and shunning have no role. I have pastored people convicted of child pornography, loved patients committed to the state psychiatric hospital for violent crimes, and known a wide array of sinners and broken people. Never once have I ever met anyone outside of God’s love.
We as a community can set limits, can disallow behaviors. The pedophile should be in prison, the patient should be in a secure treatment facility, the sinful and broken (that’s all of us) should be working towards reconciliation and healing. This is holy and good, but too often we cut people totally off or slam the door on another who has transgressed. How do we hold people accountable, keep the abused and vulnerable safe and also share compassionate love to all?
How do we respond to disagreements without scorched earth tactics? How do we be about justice and liberation for all while helping those who aren’t on the same page grow and learn too?
This is the work of beloved community. This is the work of God’s kindom on earth. So blessing on you, even if we differ, even if you have sinned, even if you are broken. Blessing on us all as we engage in this deep work and resist the temptation to shame, to shun, and to alienate.
-Eilidh
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